€29m loss at Butler brothers company

AN INVESTMENT holding company owned by brothers Ciarán and Colum Butler incurred an operating loss of €29.5 million in the year to the end of July 2010, according to accounts just filed.

Monvera Ltd, which forms part of the brothers’ entertainment and restaurant group, has a €46.5 million bank loan that is repayable after one year, according to an auditor’s note to the accounts which is dated March 2012.

“The company has not received any demand from the bank for the repayment of this loan, and the directors are of the view that the bank loan is not repayable on demand,” according to the note.

The abridged accounts do not contain a profit figure.

Accumulated losses at the end of the period were €40.9 million.

The company’s subsidiaries include a cinema operating company and two property rental companies, all based at the Leisureplex retail park in Malahide, Co Dublin.

Monvera is part of the Entertainment Enterprises (Irl) group, an unlimited company that is owned, in turn, by an Isle of Man company, Martinet Ltd, which is owned by the brothers.

Last year Entertainment Enterprises sold its cinema interests to Odeon UCI, five years after the brothers bought three cinemas from Odeon.

Odean UCI bought two former UCI cinemas at Blanchardstown and Coolock; the UCI cinema at Newbridge; the former Ormonde cinema in Stillorgan, which is being refurbished; and the five Storm Cinemas in Cavan, Portlaoise, Limerick, Naas and Waterford.

The brothers also operate the TGI Friday’s chain of restaurants in Ireland.

They recently opened an outlet in the former Bewley’s cafe premises on Westmoreland Street, Dublin (as did Starbucks).

The filings for Monvera Ltd show it has two extant mortgages with Anglo Irish Bank, now part of the State-owned Irish Bank Resolution Corporation.

The Butler brothers operate the Leisureplex chain of outlets in Ireland.

The abridged accounts of Leisureplex Blanchardstown Ltd show accumulated losses of €934,008 at the end of July 2011, an increase of more than €200,000 on the figure at the end of the previous year.

The company is owned by Entertainment Enterprises, as is Leisureplex Tallaght Ltd, which recorded an accumulated loss of €69,886 in the year to the end of July 2010, according to accounts just filed.

This compared with accumulated profits of €140,909 a year earlier.

Abridged accounts just filed for Leisureplex Stillorgan Ltd show its accumulated profits fell to €2,029 at the end of July 2010, having been €542,029 a year earlier.

The National Asset Management Agency recently approved €12 million funding to developers Michael and Tom Baily for work on a new cinema complex and Leisureplex facility at the Charlestown shopping centre off the M50 at Finglas in north Dublin.

The Butlers are to operate the Leisureplex as well as nine cinemas which will seat 1,700 patrons.